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Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2017.Doi Number

End-fire Vivaldi Antenna Array

with Wide Fan-beam for 5G Mobile Handsets
1 2 3
WON-WOO LEE , IN-JUNE HWANG , AND BEAKCHEOL JANG
1
ICT Convergence Research Division, Korea Expressway Corporation Research Institute, Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
2
Center for Electromagnetic Standards, Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science, Daejeon, South Korea
3
Department of Computer Science, Sangmyung University, Seoul, South Korea
Corresponding author: Beakcheol Jang (e-mail: bjang@smu.ac.kr).

ABSTRACT In this paper, we present a portable end-fire antenna array design for the fifth-generation
(5G) mobile handsets that exploits a Vivaldi antenna and shows a wide fan-beam on the elevation
plane. We make the proposed antenna array more efficient by printing on a 10-layer printed circuit
board (PCB) lamination in a vertical direction of the ground plane edge. Using the proposed Vivaldi
antenna array design, the radiation characteristics of 4×1 linear arrays are fabricated. To validate the
feasibility, we perform simulations and experiments. Simulation results show that the total efficiencies
of the antenna array are higher than about 8.16 – 9.46 dBi for the scanning range between 0° to 60°.
Measurement results display that the antenna has S11 reply less than -10 dB in the frequency area of
27.5 to 28.5 GHz and wide beamwidth (130.8° in azimuth plan, 21.35° in elevation plan). There is a
high accord between the calculated and measured results and we consider that the results in this study
can be well achieved by designers who design the wide width high-speed antennas of 5G mobile
terminals.
INDEX TERMS beam, series array antenna, mmWave, 5G

I. INTRODUCTION The mmWave antenna with many modules for different

5G cellular systems should use high-frequency spectrums
to support wide bandwidth and high data rates [1-5].
Millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum from 30 to 300 GHz
is recognized as the key solution that supports multi-gigabit
per second (Gbps) Communication speed over wireless
links and solves the data explosion of 5G system. Experts
have been exploring the prospect of the 28, 38, and 73 GHz
mmWave frequency bands of 5G communication.
MmWave has the characteristics of stronger directivity and
higher path loss than conventional cellular frequency waves
(below 6 GHz), so it is very challenging to apply mmWave
to cellular mobile communications. Recent study activities
have allowed reinterpretation of mmWave as a practicable
candidate for mobile communications [6]. 5 G is one of the
most prominent technologies that utilize the high data rate
attained via broad-spectrum bandwidths of the additional
spectrum [7].
The far-field radiation direction of an antenna is
categorized into the broadside radiation and the end-fire
radiation. Because the broadside radiation deteriorates by
various obstructive factors such as the hand effect [8], both
the broadside radiation and the end-fire radiation are
required to widen the radiation coverage of mobile
terminals.
functions, such as display, data communications, and
cameras, should be tightly configured within the narrow
PCB space within the mobile unit. Therefore, the
minimization of the antenna dimension including via-based
antipodal antenna using a multi-layer PCB structure [9].
The lesser antennas can be used on the top or bottom
portion of the mobile handset PCB to shape phased array
antennas with end-fire radiation pattern [10-12]. [10]
presents a novel antenna design at 28 GHz to actualize
vertical and horizontal polarizations using ultra-thin PCB
substrates. This paper aims to enhance the mmWave
transmission and reception efficiency by handling severe
losses due to polarization mismatch. However many vias
are required to produce this antenna, and the performance
of via is irregular in mass production.
[11] is based on the wideband printed antenna of dipole
type and modified to be matched for mmWave band
applications. A phased array that contains eight-antenna
elements is designed for high gain performance. However,
the space between antennas is too large (7.5mm) to apply it
to the small space of mobile phones.
[12] demonstrates a new and 28 GHz beam scanning
quasi-Yagi array method of very thin 32-element with a

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 This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI
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well-optimized single element, which has performance that
is broad bandwidth of 12.8% (3.6 GHz) and sufficient
radiation pattern appropriate for future 5G mobile handset.
However, the number of antenna elements is too many.
[13-14] show a high-efficiency microstrip-fed Yagi-Uda
antenna for millimeter-wave applications. However, the
frequency bandwidth is narrow (3-4GHz) and antenna size
is large (12.1-24.6mm).
[15-17] discusses the research with realizing largescale
antenna arrays at mmWave frequency bands for future 5G
cellular devices. But this studies had drawbacks in
realization of the real device form factors due to the large
size(length and width) and difficult manufacturing structure.
In this paper, we present an array antenna design with a
wide beamwidth for 5G mobile handset using Vivaldi
antennas [18]. Vivaldi antennas are inherently resistant to
circuit manufacturing tolerances because they have
broadband characteristics and easy impedance matching
characteristics. Therefore, in the manufacturing process, the
implementation is not more complicated than the dipole
antenna or Yagi antenna. That is, the Vivaldi antenna is
very useful for the tolerance of RF performance for mass
production such as a smartphone. Through simulation and
measurement results, the proposed antenna is determined to
be applicable for 5G mobile terminals. We perform
simulations using computer simulation technology (CST)
(Microwave Studio 2016) [19]. The simulation results show
that this antipodal Vivaldi antenna satisfies common
requirements for 5G mobile handset applications.
II. Antenna Structure
Fig. 1 shows the fabricated antenna array on a form
factor accurate PCB of which outline shape is exactly the
same as one of a commercial smartphone in the market. The
dimensions of the PCB are 60 × 135 × 0.79 mm3. ISOLA,
IS300MD substrate with permittivity of 3.1 is used. The
Isola substrate is often used in the printed circuit board for
mmWave application because of its low loss performance
at very high-frequency bands. PCB represents 60 μm
substrate thickness and 20 um copper thickness with a
tangent loss of 0.003 [20].
Fig. 2 shows the unit element of the Vivaldi antenna and
4x1 array antennas. The antenna array is generally
composed of 2N antenna elements. This is because 2N -way
is advantageous structure for designing a power divider that
minimizes losses and makes impedance matching easy.
When constructing an array antenna, the spacing between
the antennas is usually half wavelength, and the half
wavelength in the 28 GHz band is approximately 5 mm.
Unlike a base station, the mobile handset has a small form
factor, so the size of the antenna array that can be inserted
is limited. Considering this background, the number of
elements in the antenna array that can be inserted into the
mobile terminal is realistically 2, 4, and 8.
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60
Vivaldi Array
Antenna
Divider
Micro Strip
Line
135
Ground
units : mm
FIGURE 1. Photography of fabricated array antenna system.
The size of the array is determined based on the size of
the unit Vivaldi is 3.29 × 3.17 and a feeding network. The
configuration of the studied Vivaldi antenna is comprised
of two tapered arms that lie on the opposite side of the
substrate as shown in the top side of Fig. 2. The feed
network is implemented by choosing a symmetric three
stage T_junction power divider as shown in Fig. 2. The
input signal is spread between 4 linear antenna sub-arrays
by using a power divider network of two-stage T-junction,
each subarray covers 4 parallel Vivaldi with tapering width.
The communal feed is designed in a method that it
supplements signals which are of equal magnitude and
phase to each antenna to generate a radiation pattern. The
input impedance of the antenna is designed to 50 Ω and,
since the power distribution is done in parallel, the
transmission line characteristic impedance is 100 ohm. A
quarter-wavelength impedance changer with 70.7 Ω
impedance is used to change back to 50 Ω [21].
If an antenna array is added to an actual mobile device, it
will be used in combination with a beamforming IC. In the
case of such an active type array, reflected waves generated
due to mismatch in an active device including an amplifier
located on a path may be coupled to other antennas or
devices and have a great influence. However, in the passive
type array, which is the implemented case of this paper, the
isolation performance is not very important because there is
no significant difference in performance between the T-
junction power divider and the Wilkinson power divider
which emphasize isolation performance. In addition, Most
beamforming ICs have 4 channels, so the array
configuration using 4 antennas is the most realistic.
Therefore, the passive type array presented in this paper is
an example for analyzing and verifying performance when
constructing an array with the proposed antenna.
The lamination of PCB can be split into the Vivaldi, the
Divider, the antenna layer and the stripling layer as
depicted in Fig. 3. The Vivaldi antenna is comprised of an
antenna and shorting bias that is constructed using the
standard stacked-via technology. Also, the combined
physical size of the antenna and shorting vias are improved
2
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10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3004867, IEEE Access

to be nearly ¼ of guided wavelength to generate resonance Fig. 4 illustrates the simulation return loss and 3D
and impedance matching at 28 GHz. radiation patterns of the single antenna at 28 GHz. Return
loss, S11(dB), the frequency bandwidth is high, and it also
realized a well-matched impedance, as shown in Fig. 4. As
illustrated, the antenna has more than 8 GHz bandwidth.
The simulated 2D radiation patterns show a good end-
fire radiation activity in the middle of the functional band,
with adequate gain levels.
The 4-element 4x1 mm-wave phased array antenna
design is simulated to confirm beam-angle scanning
property and its performance at end-fire beamforming is
shown in Fig. 5. The end-fire beam forming demonstrates
9.46 dBi peak realized array gain for 0° and 8.16 dBi peak
gain 60°. The simulated antennas have a performance of
wide beam angle range attribute with the same
performances for (+/-) angles which can be effective to
cover the wanted beam angle range of 5G communications.

Return loss [dB]

-10

-20

-30
20 24 28 32 36
Frequency [GHz]
FIGURE 2. Structure of the proposed antenna and divider of integrated (a)
feeding network

Regarding future needs for RFIC integration, 10 layers of

dielectric substrates are utilized as a next step. The
maximum heights of the substratum are 300 μm, as three
layers are filled. The antenna structure consists of just two
metal plates.

(b)
FIGURE 4. Simulated characteristics for the proposed single vivaldi
antenna, (a) return loss, (b) 2D radiation pattern
FIGURE 3. Structure of the proposed antenna for cross-sectional view
of the proposed antenna array.

III. Simulation

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Fig. 7 (a) explain the simulated 3D radiation patterns of

the antenna array with power divider at 28 GHz. The
simulation results have displayed a gain of 8.34 dBi,
sidelobe level less than -8.1 dB, and a 3 dB beam-width of
165 degrees in the Azimuth-plane and 25 degrees in the
Elevation-plane. The pattern’s direction of main lobe is not
tilted off broadside by 0 degrees. Fig. 7 (b) express the 2-D
polar radiation pattern in the Azimuth-plane and the
Elevation-plane.
The simulated radiation efficiency of the fabricated array
is as shown in Fig. 7 (c) below. The simulated radiation
efficiency of the array is higher than 79.2 % within the
range of 26-30 GHz. It shows an average radiation
efficiency of about 80% in the 28 GHz band, showing that
the antenna structure radiates efficiently in the band.

(a) IV. Antenna Performance

Fig. 8 shows the simulated and measured result for

reflection coefficients (|S11|) of the array excited at ports.
The measurement result shows that the antenna array with
its feeding network provides efficient performance with
|S11|<-10dB across an impedance bandwidth of 27.5 to
28.5 GHz.

(b)
FIGURE 5. Simulated radiation pattern of the array antennas at different
scanning angles, (a) 2D radiation pattern (0°), (b) 2D radiation pattern
(0°,20°,40°,60°).
Fig. 6 shows the simulation return loss for Fig. 2 (a). As
can be seen from Fig. 6, S11 is -28 dB at the frequency of
28 GHz. And it is better than -10 dB in the frequency range (a)
between 27.4 and 28.7 GHz.

0
Return loss [dB]

-10

-20

-30
26 27 28 29 30
Frequency [GHz]
FIGURE 6. The simulated reflection coefficient of proposed an array
(b)
antennas

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86 Electromagnetic Wave Technology Institute, Seoul,

Radiation Efficiency [%]
South Korea. The size of the anechoic chamber is 6
84 ×9×4.8 m^3, and its measurement frequency range is
from 2.0 GHz to 110 GHz covering the mmWave bands.
82 The measurement system consists of ORBIT/FR [22]
equipment. Through radiation pattern measurement, data
80 such as beam peak gain, main beam direction,
beamwidth, sidelobes, null, and polarization can be
78 obtained.

76
26 27 28 29 30
Frequency [GHz]
(c)
FIGURE 7. Simulated radiation pattern of an antenna array, (a) 3D far
field radiation, (b) 2-D the polar graph, (c) Simulated radiation efficiency
of the fabricated array.

Simulation
Measurement
0
Return loss [dB]

-10

FIGURE 9. Measured radiation pattern for the proposed antenna.

-20

-30
26 27 28 29 30
Frequency [GHz]
FIGURE 8. Measured return loss characteristics for the proposed
antenna.

Fig. 9 shows the measured Azimuth-plane and

Elevation-plane at 28GHz. It is experiential that the antenna
array displays a well-matched wide beamwidth in Azimuth-
plane. The measured result for peak gain at 28GHz is
8.01dBi and a 3 dB beamwidth of 130.8 degrees in the FIGURE 10. mmWave antenna measurement system.

Azimuth-plane and 21.3 degrees in the Elevation-plane, and

it is smaller than the simulation results, i.e.8.3dBi, which V. CONCLUSIONS
caused by the the non-uniform of the substrate for the
manufacturing processes or the extra loss of the In this paper, we present a linear array Vivaldi antenna
attachments of the antenna. The measured radiation patterns with conformal for 5G mobile handsets. The proposed
show a good agreement with the simulated results. antenna performs a good wide beam width in Azimuth-
The antenna array is fed through the end-launch type plane with a measured gain of 8.01dB at 28GHz. It
SMA connector and the microstrip line in Fig. 1(a), and occupies the only corner of the circuit board; therefore, it is
the feed signal is distributed to each antenna through a 4- more space-effective than the existing mmWave linear
way T-junction power divider. array antenna systems.
About the measurement experiment environment, the Simulation and experiment results show well that our
return losses of single antenna and array antenna were proposed array-antenna has good performance for
measured by using Agilent E8364B vector network directivity, radiation, and total efficiency properties at
analyzer capable of operation over the range of 10 MHz wanted scanning angles and supports the wanted beam
to 50 GHz. Antenna radiation patterns were measured in coverage of the 5G communications.
an anechoic chamber as shown in Fig. 10 at the
5
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